Mortimer Scarecrow Trail

Eagerly awaited every year since its start in 2010, The MVP Scarecrow Trail is one of the MVP major events, scheduled during the school autumn half-term break.

With between 25 and 35 Scarecrows spread right across the whole of the village, the fame of this event has spread far and wide, with families visiting the village to “Walk the Trail” every year.

The initial event themed around characters from Children’s storybooks has since progressed through a range of themes including Science Fiction, Fantasy, TV characters and Heroes & Villains. In 2012 the Queens Diamond Jubilee with the London Olympics were merged to create “Jubilympics” and saw a fun concoction of Sporting Stars and Regal Royals.

Competition is always high between local families, businesses and organisations to create scarecrows for the prestigious winning prizes:

Children’s favourite

Adult’s favourite

Funniest Scarecrow

Chairman’s Prize

With maps selling in local stores for only £1 the event attracts 1000’s of people who enjoy exploring parts of Mortimer that they may otherwise never visit.

The event now includes a “just for Fun Quiz” about each scarecrow character.

We could talk about the value of exercise or providing things for children to do in the school holidays, even the business that the event attracts to local shops, pubs and cafės….. but really, this is just a whole lot of fun for everyone.

Partly sponsored by local businesses, any surplus funds generated by map sales are used to help run MVP. In 2018 for the first time MVP allowed a local organisation to run the trail for a year to support a special project.

As a reflection of the benefits of such an event, several other local villages now, too, host their own trails – The Scarecrow trail has truly become an event for the community by the community.

For full details of our next Scarecrow Trail please visit the Event link in the menu.